This Saturday the Public Security Commission of the Senate met to begin the discussion, in particular, of the Nain-Retamal Bill. The Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá participated in the instance where she pointed out that as a Government they are looking for solutions to the security problem. And she announced that in the next few days they will present a bill on the rules for the use of force.
Part of the conversation focused on the use of the video cameras that the police officers carry as part of their equipment for the audiovisual recording of what happened during their work. This, in addition to the “Nain-Retamal Law” project that provides greater legal protection to Carabineros, the Investigative Police and gendarmes.
In this sense, Minister Tohá referred to what happened in this matter during the social outbreak: “When it was the time of the outbreak, there was precisely a commotion around police procedures and a gigantic purchase of cameras was made so that they could be carried out. supported by this registry, but unfortunately that purchase was made with the wrong technology and that in practice has rendered these cameras inoperative. It is not something as simple as it might seem, it depends on the police equipment, the connectivity…”.
Along the same lines, he maintained that “on this I want to have a forceful answer after discussing it in the coming days, proposing a way for us to take this standard and put ourselves in a gradual manner that is reasonable, the idea that police procedures always have them registered and reviewed. It is a standard that we should absolutely put ourselves on the horizon”.
On the other hand, and “after listening to three presentations today,” the Secretary of State pointed out that “if one compares the presentations with what are the cases that we have had where there has been questioning of the use of force by the police, it What is discovered is that despite all the shortcomings that may exist, we do not have a problem in Chile that we have police officers convicted for procedures that we consider to be correct. Where we do have many problems is what happens in the process, what It happens to that official from the moment he uses his weapon, who often finds himself involved in a very complex procedural and professional situation that leaves him already condemned beforehand. We have the heart of the problem there and that is what It inhibits the police more, it is not that they believe they are going to be sentenced, but from now until they prove their innocence they are going to go through a situation that cannot be reversed. It is something that is going to have permanent consequences on their career and their Personal life. We have to change that, because a police officer is not like a person who had or has the right to use a weapon, but rather has a duty to use it by virtue of a commission that we gave him as a society.”
He added that he is committed to having this discussion at maximum speed in the Executive and “see what we can propose in this regard, because something that I definitely think the session has confirmed is that this is a sensitive issue.”
